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Monday, November 30, 2015

About three years ago I stumbled on a Kickstarter for an RPG called Numenera. It seemed to be getting quite a bit of support and I was quickly growing tired once again of the D&D 3.5 rules. I started to investigate the game and it sounded interesting, the idea of what our world would be like so far in the future plus the idea of having streamlined rules that promoted story, action and wild ideas. One of the selling points was the creator, Monte Cook. I really wasn't familiar with him, but after seeing what types of materials he had generated in the past I decided to take a plunge and see what I would get.

The new game company kept it's backers up to date, showed some artwork, provided some short stories. We all knew that work was being done and that the team had a schedule.

One year later the rulebook was delivered, it was well made, well written and provoked my imagination. Now all I had to do was try and fit it into my rpg schedule, I was still playing d&d 3.5 with a group at a game store on thursdays and was running an epic storyline for my monthly Saturday group. The d&d
group was set on only playing d&d so I wasn't able to get them to try something new and I had to finish my epic on Saturdays, so Numenera just had to wait.

A few months after they delivered the first pieces of the Numenera Campaign, MonteCookGames also announce another game, "The Strange". The ruleset was to be mostly the same so I was already familiar with it and the setting and concepts drew me in. Knowing that the new ( now one year old ) company was able to complete its projects I decided to back The Strange for a bit more than I did for Numenera. The following August I had a nice collection of The Strange products on my doorstep.

A few months after that MonteCookGames started advertising for evangelist/demonstrators for both of their games. I wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to do, the minor rewards sounded good and I had been looking for a way to game. ( I had left my d&d group by then ) So after thinking for it for a while I signed up to be part of their AssetTeam. Since then I've run a couple of demos, with small turn outs but things went well. I am may be running a few demos as Capricon this year.

Now about three years later I get to run a full-time campaign, that meets mostly regularly and has some strange characters that I have recently posted about. Hopefully more to follow on a more regular basis.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

My wonderful wife pulled together a nice week long trip to Florida that also included a three day cruise to the Bahamas. I've been on one other cruise, a couple of years ago. That cruise was also a short three day trip that left LA with a final stop at a Mexican port. The thing I like about these cruises is the relative freedom, considering you're trapped in a floating hotel.

During our California cruise I found that I just enjoyed the relaxation, whether is was laying on a lounge chair by the pool or napping in the tiny shoebox room. It was the feeling that it was my time for whatever I wanted, I could go visit the buffet nearly any time I was hungry or the pizza bar late at night. For our Bahamas cruise we did a little bit more, we spent nearly the entire alotted time on the cruise line's private island ( probably about 2 square miles ). We made sure to go to the shows they had in the evenings and again had a wonderful, relaxing, enjoyable time.

During this last cruise a thought occured to me. Wouldn't an RPG cruise be fun? Like a gaming convention only with real destinations. Everyone could do the excursions during the day and then in the evening when it was time to relax just set up shop at a table in the buffet dining area and play some D&D or anything for a few hours.

If you've been on a cruise and are a gamer, has this ever occured to you? Do you think it could work?

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

As I've seen from a lot of rpg gaming groups schedules are a lot of hit-or-miss. My Monday night pulp savage worlds group has lost a player so we've switched to Numenera.
Numenera promotes the weird, but I don't know if I could expect what we got.

Going from most strange to least the players made a Mad nano who Consorts with the Dead. She carries around her mother's shrunken head, because that's what they do in their Aldeia. It is assumed that each daughter would kill their mother once they became of age. Then they would venture out into the world to find a mate so that they in turn would have a daughter. She is currently wandering the world looking for that mate.

The next is a Tough Glaive who Fuses Flesh with Steel, he is a member of a cult/religion whose member's main purpose in life is to become completely machine. He is on his walk-about to see the world and gather parts to incorporate into his being.

The last is the most "normal" he is a Rugged Jack who Explores Dark places. I have yet to hear a driving force behind his adventures other than to become rich.

Their first adventure had them visit Shadewalker Shanty and help the aldeia track the Shadewalker their aldeia is built around. They had arrived shortly before the ancient numenera machine raised itself up and flew away.